I love my job. I can work in my pajamas. I can take a break in the middle of the day to go for a walk, or take the kids on a field trip, or go to a ball game. I love writing, and my job is 90% writing. It doesn’t get much better than that … Well, sometimes it does. Like the annual Regional SWAT Training put on by Sacramento FBI.

I love my job. I can work in my pajamas. I can take a break in the middle of the day to go for a walk, or take the kids on a field trip, or go to a ball game. I love writing, and my job is 90% writing. It doesn’t get much better than that … Well, sometimes it does. Like the annual Regional SWAT Training put on by Sacramento FBI.

My kids have only been out of school for three days and already I’ve heard the two youngest sing–often–the popular song called, “I’m bored.” If they were growing up in the 70s and 80s like me, they’d be out every day until the street lamps came on. I had three good friends who all lived only blocks from me (and my best friend was two doors down); I had a bike I rode everywhere; and I had a summer pass to the movie theater where every Saturday we could see a dollar matinee of Disney movies. I spent hundreds of… Read More

My kids have only been out of school for three days and already I’ve heard the two youngest sing–often–the popular song called, “I’m bored.” If they were growing up in the 70s and 80s like me, they’d be out every day until the street lamps came on. I had three good friends who all lived only blocks from me (and my best friend was two doors down); I had a bike I rode everywhere; and I had a summer pass to the movie theater where every Saturday we could see a dollar matinee of Disney movies. I spent hundreds of… Read More

The three day weekend threw me off, and I didn’t get the reminder out this weekend for our Murder He Writes guest we set up … 2 months ago. Bad me. Also, I’ve spent all weekend working on revisions for COLD SNAP, writing upcoming guest blogs and articles for the release of STOLEN next week, and enjoying an overcast and damp Memorial Day by going to a high school baseball game (our school won the D-VI championship! Yeah!) But here’s the links to our previous guests, and we’re booked up through July with some great guys 🙂 … and read… Read More

I don’t want to go into details, but there have been some Readers Behaving Badly — readers so upset about an author’s story choices that they have resorted to threats. I’m flummoxed about this because, while I understand how readers might get mad at a book and never read that author again, that they would threaten an author and say horrific things on-line is beyond me. We’ve heard of stalkers (both physical and on-line) and general threats to all celebrities, and some of them authors, but to me, this situation goes even further, as if the characters and story is… Read More

One more week and COLD SNAP will be done. It’ll need revisions and copyedits, but the story will all be there — if all goes well. Last night, I wrote a new prologue. I had one already drafted, but it nagged me … I just didn’t like it. It didn’t show my heroine, Elle Santana, the way I wanted. She has a very strong motivation for doing what she’s doing, and the original prologue didn’t show that. The new one does — a teenager she’s been helping dies in her arms of a drug overdose after being thrown from a… Read More

My husband has a theory. If you put a picture of the cat on anything, you increase traffic. Want more people to “like” your page? Post a cat. If you want a million views on YouTube? Record your cat. The above cat is Nemo, enjoying last Tuesday morning’s wind and sun on our back porch. Technically, Nemo is my daughter’s cat, but he’s really mine, because even when she moves out of the house, he’s staying with me. I have a thing for orange and white cats. Nemo is very popular on my Facebook page. I post a picture of… Read More

Last week, I shared a link on Twitter to Jodie Renner’s terrific blog post about writing tense action scenes. I found the way she shared the information to be clear and helpful, particularly because she provided examples (much like MSW friend Margie Lawson does in her workshops!) Since I learn by example, I love this approach. I particularly liked Jodie’s article because I was in the middle of editing a fast-paced novella and reviewing her checklist helped me remember the important aspects of thrillers. I’ve written 20 books and sometimes, while I subconsciously know what to look for in edits,… Read More

The time change last weekend has screwed up not only my inner clock, but my kids. It’s never happened like this before. Usually, the time change is but an irritable bump in the weekend. But it’s already Thursday and my kids can’t get to sleep at night and they are monsters to wake up in the morning. Last week, all my kids got up on their own by seven (usually much earlier) and getting them ready for school was never a problem. Now? My husband and I have to wake them up multiple times, showers are rushed, lunches are small,… Read More